Vocational Rehabilitation for Pain Sufferers: What’s the Difference with
Medical Rehabilitation
Dr Andy Shu-kei CHENG
Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Rehabilitation of injured worker can be conceived differently from medical rehabilitation in
the way that the former is targeted intervention aim at preventing work disability and
fostering return to work of the injured worker. Work disability refers to individuals who have
discontinued their participation in occupational activities. It is the result of a condition that
causes a worker to miss at least one day of work and includes time off work as well as any
ongoing work limitations. There are three different terms in Hong Kong regarding
rehabilitation of injured worker, namely: vocational rehabilitation, occupational rehabilitation
and work rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation refers to program which gear toward
developing new job interests and skills of the workers. It is any formal training program
designed to help individuals of working age with physical and /or mental disabilities compete
successfully against others in order to earn a living. Occupational rehabilitation, on the other
hand, refers to a managed process involving early intervention with appropriate and timely
services based on assessed needs, and which is aimed at maintaining injured or ill
employee in, or returning them to, suitable employment. The primary goal of it is to return the
injured worker back to pre-injury employer. Lastly, for the work rehabilitation, it is an
individualized, work-oriented activity process that involves an individual in simulated or
actual work tasks. These tasks are structured and graded progressively to increase
psychological, physical and emotional tolerance and improve endurance and work feasibility.
In Hong Kong, we make use of different work simulators, work samples and tailor-made
work stations to simulate the work demand of the injured worker so as to prepare them to
return to work. However, returning an injured worker back to work is not an easy task. The
readiness to return to work can be explained by the stage of change model which addresses
the motivational factors contributing to a behaviour change in the RTW attempt. So, the
essence of every rehabilitation program for injured worker should be a biopsychosocial
model with appreciation of workplace factors, keeping abreast of systematic and
evidence-based practice and incorporate it into overall disability management in the
workplace.